I have more books than friends.

Category: favourites

The man himself describes La Belle Sauvage as an ‘equel’, designed to stand alongside His Dark Materials in all its magnificent glory. But does it really? YES. Yes! YES! (Notice how I’m trying to think about this book critically, rather than screaming ‘OH MY GOD THIS IS NEW PHILIP PULLMAN YES YES YES YES YES’. Like a good cheese,… Read More La Belle Sauvage by Philip Pullman

Well. Well. Was I the only person who expected this novel to be, quite frankly, worse? I had expected a skin-crawling, watching-sex-scenes-with-the-parents cringefest, in regards to the relationship between Paul Morel and his mother. Stupid me for expecting Lawrence to write something so crass as that. And, thank Christ, that means no Oedipus-complex sex. This is… Read More Sons and Lovers by DH Lawrence

I’m wrong about lots of things. The brilliance of Wuthering Heights, although I adore it now. The amount of time it takes to get from one train platform to another. And now, this novel, which is glorious. (warning: this post will contain spoilers.) In the first chapter, I had a niggling doubt that this could turn out to… Read More Mantissa by John Fowles

My previously unemotional self has recently been reading a spate of poetry and books that manage to wring water out of tear ducts which haven’t seen action in months. When Breath Becomes Air is no exception – it is searingly beautiful, quite literally contemplating the nature of life and death. Paul Kalanithi was a successful neurosurgeon, but… Read More When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi

I bloody love Andrew Scott. As Moriarty, he was – is – the perfect villain. You only have to see the @moriartyenterto Twitter account (not even the whole show) to see that he exudes sass. If he asked me to do anything – strip, give him a kidney, sell my soul – I’d do it. Personally, I’d… Read More Hamlet at the Almeida (moriarty!)

When I announced in English today that I’d read this novel – describing The Master and Margarita as ‘Satan causes havoc in Russia’ – I was met with the kind of look that said ‘You need to step away from the books and go outside’. Although I acknowledge there is an element of truth in… Read More The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov

The poetry collection is expanding. Worryingly so – I never thought that I’d ‘get into’ poetry, but then William Blake arrives on the scene, blows my mind and I’ve never looked back. Fast forward to a year later and I’m sat on a bus from the seediest part of Somerset trying not to cry. I… Read More Birthday Letters by Ted Hughes